At this writing, I am down to my last 6 charter trips for the 2019 season. I must say that I am happy at 73 years old and 80 charters are taking their toll on me. A real difference when I was younger and could do 135 trips a season fairly easy. The other thing that makes me happy to end this magnificent season is, the kokanee are mostly gone and there are no trout to be found. It’s not fun catching 4 to 6 old kokes now. We have been catching 15 to 45 fish daily all season. As I previously said, a great kokanee season. We really never saw much of a trout bite except when DF&W planted.
Up to this week we had been collecting multiple limits of kokanee and then the great crash came with a possible single limit. There is still much interest in fishing this month, but I had Shaver Lake Sports, my reservation center, stop taking more charters due to a drop in fish activity this week. I must share this with you, if DF&W does not plant a good amount of catchable trout this next year, Shaver will be primarily a water ski lake as there will be no 3rd year kokanee and if we do not get regular heavy plants no trout to boot.
My forecast of a great trout September is not working out. I am sorry for that mistake.
By the time this story comes out I will be near the end of my 14th charter season. I will be taking the boat out of the lake following my September 29th trip. Then cleaning and maintenance on the boat at the Boat Shoppe in downtown Fresno. It will then be stored into my big garage for the winter out of the snow. I begin my 15th season May 1st.
I am very happy that my tackle products were very successful this year, especially the Mountain Hoochies.
Shaver Lake Sports has Christmas Gift cards for the 2020 season — they make nice gifts.
Thanks to all of you who fished with me this year. This column will continue through the winter.